Electric cars sound great until you realize that turning on the stereo costs you mileage. So Bose is hopping on the bandwagon with low-power speaker systems early.

Their new Energy Efficient Series, debuting in the 2011 Chevy Volt, promises to be 30% smaller, 40% lighter, and use 50% less energy than "conventional Bose sound systems."

Is this some grand achievement on Bose's part? Well, we don't really know. It's ridiculously easy (and cheap) to make low wattage audio systems—it's just a bit more difficult to make them sound great. Still, we're interesting to see a new industry emerge—one that may have car audio enthusiasts installing more efficient amplifiers and lower wattage speakers...well, at least if they want to untether their car from an outlet. [Bose]